Principal Designer, Mobile Apps — End-to-End Experience

theeconomistgroup; Greater London; Presencial; GBP 90.000 - 130.000; Jornada completa

Descripción del empleo

Who we are

Since 1843, The Economist Group has championed independence, excellence and openness, helping people understand and tackle the critical challenges shaping the world. Today, we are building on that legacy as a global media and information-services company powered by digital innovation, analytical rigour and evidence-based insight.

Across our three businesses - The Economist, Economist Enterprise and Economist Education - we deliver trusted analysis and insights to individuals and organisations in more than 170 countries. United by a shared purpose to drive progress, we empower decision-makers to make sense of change and chart a course through an increasingly complex world.

As a colleague, you will be part of a culture that values ideas, encourages ownership and holds itself to high standards. We invest in people who are curious, thoughtful and adaptable, whether they are launching new products, reporting on global events or harnessing emerging technologies such as AI to improve how we work. Here, fresh thinking is taken seriously, ambition is matched by integrity, and great work is recognised. Working across disciplines, geographies and perspectives, we are united by a commitment to innovation, excellence and creating meaningful impact.

Want to discover more about life at The Economist Group? Follow @EconomistCareers on Instagram to discover the people, stories and opportunities that make TEG unique.

The role

The Economist is consolidating Product, Engineering, Delivery, Design and Quality into a single Technology organisation built around durable, cross-functional teams aligned to coherent product and platform domains. Designers work inside those teams alongside engineers and product managers, and a small number of Principal Designers set the design direction and quality bar across them, without line-management responsibility.

Mobile apps are a domain where that design leadership matters most. The Economist app and Espresso are where many of our most engaged subscribers read, listen, watch and return each day, so the quality of the app experience bears directly on habit, engagement and retention.

The Principal Designer, Mobile Apps role is created to give the app portfolio a single senior design authority: someone who owns the end-to-end experience vision across our apps, does the hardest design work personally, and raises the craft of every designer and team that touches them. The role works as the design counterpart to the Head of Product & Engineering, Apps.

Responsibilities

• Experience vision and journeys: The end-to-end experience across The Economist app and Espresso, from onboarding and first use through daily habit, subscription and renewal.
• Reading, listening and watching: Edition, article, navigation, search and personalisation experiences; audio and video, including players, playlists and moving smoothly between reading, listening and watching.
• Offline experience: Downloading editions, articles, audio and video for use without a connection, a core part of how many readers use the apps, so that the offline experience is as complete and dependable as the online one.
• Subscription and access: Onboarding, registration, paywall, in-app purchase and account journeys, designed within app-store guidelines and with the Commerce domain.
• Design system and platform conventions: The mobile layer of the design system, expressing the Economist brand while respecting Apple Human Interface Guidelines and Material Design, built with engineers as shared components.
• Accessibility and inclusion: Screen readers, dynamic type, contrast, motion and touch targets, to WCAG and platform accessibility standards.
• Emerging surfaces: Notifications, widgets, wearables and in-car audio, and AI-enabled features such as summaries, recommendations and conversational experiences.

Accountabilities

• Set the design direction for apps: Define and maintain a clear, evidence-based experience vision for the app portfolio, and a practical path from today's apps to it, aligned to product strategy and agreed with domain leaders.
• Lead the hardest design problems: Stay hands-on: frame, explore, prototype and design the most complex and consequential experiences personally, such as a new navigation model, a redesign of reading, listening and watching, or the offline experience or a new subscription journey.
• Ground design in evidence: Work with User Research, Data and Product to understand readers, listeners and viewers, test ideas early, and measure the effect of what ships thr